IRDAI has done away with the requirement of putting warning notices in television and cinema hall advertisements informing the public that IRDAI is not involved in the selling and marketing of insurance policies. This has come into effect immediately.
However, insurers are still required to carry this warning on their websites and print ads.
Earlier, in a bid to check fraudulent sales calls, IRDA had asked insurance companies to show this warning in their advertisements. IRDAI found that some fraudulent callers posing as IRDAI employees were making calls to people to sell insurance policies.
IRDA had stipulated that all advertisements had to carry this message in the advertisement in bold letters - ‘Beware of Spurious Phone Calls and Fictitious/ Fraudulent Offers’ and ‘IRDA or its officials do not involve in activities like sale of any kind of insurance of financial products nor investment of premiums. Also, IRDA does not announce any bonus. The electronic ad will include this slide with a voice over of this content in clear terms.’
So far, insurers were required to display such caution notice for 5 seconds. A senior official from a private sector insurance company said that many insurers had requested IRDAI through Life Insurance Council to do away with this warning notice as they were incurring a huge cost on this.